The Right Ranger by Donna Michaels

Haley Wagner’s life just got a lot more complicated. As if turning her struggling
ranch around isn’t tough enough, she’s forced to call him for
help. With his hard eyes and even harder body, Cord is an irritatingly sexy
contradiction of hot and cold. How can she possibly hide her embarrassing
secret when just looking at Cord is a combustible event?

Former Army Ranger Cord Brannigan has a secret, too. He promised his fallen teammate he’d
protect the tempting, fiercely independent Haley from a distance, but now
they’re stuck together for three weeks. Alone. Keeping his hands off will
take every ounce of control he can muster. And that control is slipping…

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The Men of At Ease Ranch!

Donna Michaels is an award winning, New York Times & USA
Today bestselling author of Romaginative fiction. Her hot, humorous, and
heartwarming stories include cowboys, men in uniform, and some sexy, primal
alphas. With a husband in the military fulltime, and a household of nine, she
never runs out of material to write, and has rightfully earned the nickname
Lucy…and sometimes Ethel. From short to epic, her books entertain readers
across a variety of sub-genres, and one has even being hand drawn into a Japanese
translation. Now, if only she could read it.

As soon as he cut the engine outside the barn, he heard a large crash from inside followed by a slew of curses.

Haley.

With his gut knotted tight, he crossed the yard and entered on a sprint. “Haley…Jesus,” he muttered, finding her underneath a pegboard and a pile of tools. Sharp ones. Shit.

“Now you show up,” she scoffed.

He hoisted the peg board and tossed it aside. “What the hell happened?”

“Had a fight with a wall and lost.” A smirk twitched her full lips and gleamed in her whiskey gaze.

“That’s not funny.”

“Damn straight.” She frowned. “It hurts like a bitch.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “How the hell did you manage to knock this over?”

“Quite well, actually.”

Smartass.

He knelt beside her and leveled his gaze on her. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Did I?” She tipped her chin and narrowed her eyes. “Hard to tell underneath all that accusation and condemnation dripping from your tone. I’m not one of your Rangers, Warlock. That hard stare of yours won’t work on me.”

Christ. He didn’t need this shit.

She made to get up, pushing a few tools out of the way, and that’s when he noticed the blood dripping down her arm.

“Stay still,” he ordered, grasping her unharmed arm to hold her steady. “Let me have a look.”

A quick inspection deemed it deep but not stitch-worthy, thank God. He yanked off his shirt and wrapped it around her arm, ignoring her gasp as he tied it tight until he could get her in the house for some proper first aid. But he didn’t want her moving until he examined the rest of her body for injuries.

With his training kicking in, he ran his hands over her, noting a small cut on her cheek, another on the back of her hand, and a bruise on her other wrist, no doubt from covering her face.